Electronic mail has become one of the most widely used business productivity application. However, people increasingly feel frustrated by their email. They are overwhelmed by the volume, lose important items, and feel pressure to respond quickly. Though email usage has changed, email clients have changed little since they were first invented. Although today's email clients are more graphical with onscreen buttons, pull-down menus and rich-text display, they are essentially derivative programs of the email clients from thirty years ago. Many email clients today have the same set of features and organizational structures: multiple folders in which messages can be filed, a textual listing of the messages within a given folder, and the ability to preview a selected message. However, studies have shown that folder systems quickly degrade with the number of messages people receive. Most people end up keeping all of their email in one large folder. The content and use of email has also changed. In addition to traditional letters, email now consists of invitations, receipts, transactions, discussions, conversations, tasks, and newsletters, to name a few variations.
A problem facing people in organizations is persistence. Too often projects get started only to lose momentum because of the effort required to track actions, activity and progress. The large volume of electronic mail which most people must cope with in conjunction with the inefficient electronic mail tools currently available exacerbates this problem. Many electronic mail users spend many unproductive hours sorting, prioritizing, and responding to electronic mail. This time depletes the time spent performing productive work. In addition, many current electronic mail applications do not interact with other productivity tools of the user, such as calendar programs and collaborative meeting applications. Accordingly, the user must repeatedly shift focus among different applications, possibly using his or her concentration on the current item.
Accordingly a need exists for electronic mail tools which facilitate greater efficiency in viewing, processing and responding to electronic mail.
A further need exists for an electronic mail viewer which interacts seemlessly with a calendar utility and other applications, such as collaborative meeting applications.
A further need exists for a calendar utility that can be simultaneously with viewed with an electronic mail inbox and which interacts seemlessly with an electronic mail program for viewing of electronic mail associated with selected time periods on the calendar utility.